Does anyone nymph the winter months. I did a little last year and the eyelets on the rod froze up but i cought fish with a phesant tail. but havent tried any other patterns. I only fish fishing creek do to i keep failing to get my lisence but any winter patterns you would like to share

I used to fish every weekend of the winter regardless of temps, but last couple years I require 35 degrees or higher. The only thing I'd offer would be using slightly larger nymphs and slow them down, way down. Fish will feed, but the effort to food value calculation becomes more exacting to them. A small nymph isn't going to move them much more than an inch, whereas a size 10 stonefly or wooly bugger may get them to shift 6-8 inches.

By the way, don't you need a license to fish Fishing Creek?

Posted on: 2007/7/26 20:23

_________________Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.

I had one of my best days ever last December using chartruese egg patterns. I probably caught 10 fish in 2 hours that day with several in the 16-18 inch range. I could see the fish charging across the stream to get my fly. Too bad every day isn't like that...

Posted on: 2007/7/26 23:17

_________________Only one constant in the universe, all men are equal in the eyes of the fish. -GulfGreyhound paraphrasing Herbert Hoover

I have also had some good days in the fringe winter months with egg patterns. Late, late fall/early winter, and late winter/early spring. Clearly due to instinctive knowledge of spawning habits IMO. So yeah, give an egg a try like Albatross suggested.

<brag>As I said earlier about midges though... Right around 2 pm, when the sun is on the water and warming it up a bit. 25 trout on a zebra midge in 1.5 hours one day. The best fishing day of my life was in freaking January. It was unreal.</brag>

I fish a lot during the winter because it is during the school year and I have a lot of time. I use a lot of buggers and streamers. You'd be suprised how active fish can be when you throw a large streamer in a hole even when there is ice on the banks. I watched my friend who dosen't fly fish catch a huge brown one january when it was about 10 degrees out on a rapala. The fish charged it from a long way. From my experince I trout will move long distances even in the winter if the meal is big enough.

Posted on: 2007/7/27 7:43

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Don't talk about fisheries topics if you know nothing about them

I fished a lot this winter, and scuds were the most productive for me. However, I was mostly fishing Valley Creek. On other creeks, BHHE (size #14 and #16 in grey, brown, olive, black), BHPT (#14, #16, #18), midges (zebra and tiger), eggs, and San Juan Worms after rain were working.

I generally used a lot of beadheads or heavy weighted flys with lots of added splitshot to keep them as close to the bottom as possible. It means you get hung up a lot, but from my experience, if I wasn't getting hung up every 3-5 casts, I wasn't catching fish either.....

I agree with JayL about zebra midges when the sun is on the water. Also, buggers and more buggers.

I never used to like winter fishing (age has something to do with that ) but cold weather clothing is so good now. There's an ad in one of the fishing magazines that shows a guy with a big fish and the caption reads "there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.Coughlin

School does give me a lot of time to fish and hunt and just be in the outdoors. The problem is $. Being in college sucks for that part. When I go I go for 12 hours and make the most of my time. We've been out so long sometimes I've seen some of my buddies get hypothermic. Its not a pertty sight but it is funny as long as they turn out unharmed.

Posted on: 2007/7/28 9:59

_________________
Don't talk about fisheries topics if you know nothing about them